"I ranked up," I said, exasperated.
"Did you? Good...but now what do we do with this…"
He looked at the piles of scrap metal on the ground. Most of the rats were covered under hundreds of pounds of rusted iron.
"Should we move it, or should we just get our things done and get back to town?"
"Get back to town, why? It's still morning. Let's just move this stuff. I kind of want to see what it's like deeper in."
Jack bent down and grunted as he pulled up a large sheet of metal and tossed it back into the clearing. I moved the body of the alpha rat aside and helped him dig out the rest. I found all ten of the gears I needed, and he found the hundred pounds of scrap metal he needed. It took us well into the morning to dig a small path through to the other side. We managed to salvage 10 rats in the meantime. The rest of them were crushed beyond all use. Drinking the heart blood of the three smallest rats we found only granted us a .5% increase in Anima Manipulation, and a .25% increase in agility. Of the rats that were about the size of a poodle, we recovered five corpses. Three went to me, and two to Jack. Drinking these finished my first task for Anima Manipulation so from that alone, my Mastery in that stat rose by 5%, and the mastery for every other stat rose by 2%. I also unlocked the next level task:
[DRINK THE HEART BLOOD OF ANY 15 MIASMA-TOUCHED CREATURES
0/15
10% Mastery to Anima Manipulation, 5% to every stat. ]
From the rats themselves, I got a 1% in Mastery to Anima Manipulation, and a .5% increase in mastery to Agility. For a total of 3% and 1.5% respectively. The last rat was the size of a medium-sized dog. Jack took that, while I took the alpha rat. Drinking its blood gave me a 3% increase to Anima Manipulation and a 2% increase to Agility.
We had cut a path through the fallen junk, and after resting for a little while we continued on our way.
"Where are we going to find rare materials?" Jack muttered as he glanced through the piles of junk.
"Let me show you," I said as I glanced around.
I spotted a washing machine sitting comfortably on a pretty sturdy shelf about ten feet up on one of the piles to our left. I climbed up to it, cut the cord off of its base, and tossed it down to the ground.
"What's this?" Jack asked as he picked it up. "This is considered a rare material?"
"No. Strip the sheathe away and you'll find copper inside."
"Oh! That's brilliant." He said, "I never would have thought of that."
Through sheer brute will he tore the black sheath off, and coiled up the copper around his knuckles.
"What were you looking for?"
"I don't know...like a gold statue or something."
"I don't think we'll find something like that here."
We continued until we got to the part of the path where the rats appeared. The path through this canyon of junk forked off into two separate paths. On the way there, we found a couple more appliances that climbed up to get, and Jack stripped.
"Which way?"
"I don't know, this is the furthest I've gotten," I admitted.
Jack held his mace out in front of him with the handle on the ground, and let it go. The mace held in place for a second before falling toward the right-hand path.
"I suppose we'll go there."
Was that one of his skills? Like a divination ability?
He picked up his mace and led the way further in. A couple of steps into this new path, some movement up ahead catches his attention he held up his hand to stop as a bipedal creature came into view. It had a thick, rust-red carapace, and two scythes as its arm like some kind of freak praying mantis. Its head was much the same as a mantis, and its legs were like a grasshopper's with wiry hairs poking out the bottom. With its sickle-like hands, it tore apart pieces of metal and chewed them with its snapping mandibles.
Jack held his mace in front of his body, and I pulled my pistol out. He glanced back at me and nodded, and I took careful aim. While the creature lifted a piece of metal plate to its jaws, I fired. The creature screamed as the bullet cracked the carapace. It turned its bulbous gaze towards, us, dropped the scrap in its jaws, and sprung forward. Its carapace opened up, and two translucent wings fluttered to carry it quickly. As it neared Jack it raised its two scythe hands and slashed forward.
Jack intercepted with the body of his mace jammed just underneath the downward swinging blade. With a loud grunt, he shoved it to the side and slammed it against the nearest junk pile. He planted his legs solidly beneath the shifting rust sand and extended his arms so they took the brunt of the creature's thrashing, instead of his neck and face.
"Finish it off!" He called through gritted teeth.
I stepped forward and pressed the pistol directly onto the creature's mantis-like head. It tried to turn its neck to snap at me, but Jack pushed all the harder to keep it from moving. I fired, and its body went limp. Jack backed away and hissed. Blood poured down his right arm as the creature collapsed onto the ground. My PID dinged as I pulled off my backpack and tossed him what was left of the potion.
"What's this?"
"Drink it."
"A potion? Those exist?"
He opened up the bottle with some difficulty and swallowed a mouthful. A moment of wincing later, he rolled up his sleeves. The injuries were already fading and the trickling of blood had already stopped.
"That's incredible."
"It is, isn't it?"
I pulled out the PID to see what these things were called:
[Scrapper added to Bestiary.]
[Pistol Mastery increased by 2%]
"A scrapper, huh? By the description, it sounds pretty nasty."
"Does it? Do you actually read those?"
"Well, yeah. Why not?"
I don't know. Seemed like a waste of time to me.
"Do you think we could sell anything from it?"
"I have no clue."
"Probably its hands, right...it looks insectoid, do you think it has a heart?"
"One way to check." I slid the pistol back into its holster and pulled out my knife.
How do I do this? I ask the Ego.
Figure it out yourself.
Rude.
There was a large black plate on its chest. I wriggled the blade underneath it and used it as a pry bar. After some time, it began to separate from its chest with a wet schluck. Beneath this carapace were fibrous muscles that I cut through. Beneath that were the organs. It didn't take me long to find its heart; hanging in the middle of its chest surrounded by veins and ventricles. I ripped it out.
"Do you want it?"
"You need it more."
I puncture it with my knife and put it to my lips. The blood is bitter and sour. Drinking it raises my Anima Manipulation by 4%, my Agility by 3, and my Strength by 2%.
"I think I'm done for the day," Jack said as he hacked the arms from the creature, and handed them over to me.
"Let's get your copper and we'll head back."
"Let's come back tomorrow." He said, "I want to see what lies at the end of the scrapyard."
That old adventurous spirit that I had thought that I had killed years ago reignited, and suddenly seeing what lay in the back of this strange place was something that I wanted to do as well. And that's just what we did. On the way back through the Scrapyard we'd keep an eye out for an appliance, and I'd go up and cut the cord, toss them down where Jack would strip them.
We got back to town before Sunset turned in our jobs and sold what extra items we had. Including the 3000 dollars I paid that morning to Daniel and his crew, the cost of the room, the cost of a meal, the cost of new bullets, and a new set of clothes; at the end of the day I was down 4000 dollars.